Paxton EJ 125 McLaren Vale Shiraz 2018

Deep crimson red with purple hues. A powerful yet graceful nose, with exceptional fruit characters and cinnamon spice from the French oak. Fullbodied wine with dark fruit characters and hints of cocao. Mid palate generosity showing old vine fruit concentration and fine grain tannins with a touch of French oak.

A limited release wine, the EJ Shiraz is sourced from 125+ year-old vines from our Thomas Block vineyard, which is renowned for producing fruit of exceptional flavour and natural balance. The Shiraz vines are amongst the oldest in McLaren Vale and are carefully hand pruned and thinned to ensure the low and uniform yields required for super premium Shiraz.

2016 was a very strong year in McLaren Vlae. After 6 months without rain, we had 40mm in the first week of February. The slowed down the baumes and allowed tha cidity to catch up, therefore giving the fuit fantastic flavour equilibrium. Berry numbers were high due to an even veraison, which lead to the higest quality crops and tonnages this millennium.

Handpicked at optimum sugar and flavour equilibrium, the grapes were kept on skins for 15 days,. Tne ferment was pumped over and plunged twice a day to extract colour, flavour and tannin structure.

We pressed into French oak barriques (50% new) for maturation of up to 22 months prior to blending and bottling. This wine was cellared for a further 12 months prior to release.

Aged cheddar and good company